In today’s digital world, if you don’t have some semblance of social media presence, your marketing efforts run the risk of getting lost in the void. Most companies realize that they need to have social media accounts, so they create them and some even dutifully post through their accounts. However, many companies don’t leverage social media to its full potential and make several mistakes that render their digital marketing efforts very nearly moot.

Fail to Post

It seems like such an easy thing to post on Facebook and/or Twitter once a day. You already do it on your personal account, so it can’t be so hard on a company account, right? Wrong. Curating a business account is much different from a personal account because each post needs to have a purpose. Because of this, many companies that don’t have a dedicated social media manager fail to post on any regular basis mostly because it slips their mind.

Fail to Interact

Social media isn’t just a marketing tool; it’s your best form of customer service in the digital age. Frequently, customers will contact companies through their social media accounts since it’s the easiest point of contact for them. If you don’t have someone there to interact with these people, you run the risk of losing valuable customers.

Fail to be Proactive

Social media is just that: social. You can’t be social if you’re isolated in your own bubble. Most companies just wait for followers to come to them, but if you don’t get out there and strike up conversations and participate in discussions, it’s likely no one will recognize your presence online.

Fail to Monitor

Oftentimes, your business or industry is mentioned or discussed online without your company being tagged in the conversation. If a business doesn’t track keywords, they miss out on a number of opportunities to engage their community.

Ultimately, social media marketing is a full time job. It’s not something that the marketing intern can handle for two hours out of the week. It takes a good deal of strategy, engagement and measuring metrics in order to have a successful social media presence.

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